An algorithmic Apple of Discord: DARPA renames Theory of Mind program to ‘Kallisti’

Could ‘Kallisti’ be the beginning of another Trojan Horse scenario? perspective

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) renames its Theory of Mind program to “Kallisti” — a term associated with the mythological “Apple of Discord” and the start of the Trojan War.

Last month, DARPA announced its algorithmic Theory of Mind program to predict and manipulate the future behavior of the Pentagon’s adversaries.

According to the original Theory of Mind special notice:

“DARPA is interested in developing new capabilities to enable national security decisionmakers to optimize strategies for deterring or incentivizing actions by adversaries […] The goal of an upcoming program will be to develop an algorithmic theory of mind to model adversaries’ situational awareness and predict future behavior.”

DARPA has since dropped the term “theory of mind,” along with optimizing “strategies for deterring or incentivizing actions by adversaries,” with the newly-announced Kallisti program, which now states:

The word Kallisti appears in Greek mythology when the goddess of discord and strife, Eris, was furious about not being invited to a wedding.

She wrote the word Kallisti, meaning “to the fairest,” or “for the most beautiful,” on a golden apple, which she tossed into the wedding banquet.

Three goddesses claimed to be the fairest, and thus the rightful recipient of this golden “Apple of Discord.”

• Hera: Goddess of marriage and family
• Athena: Goddess of warfare and wisdom
• Aphrodite: Goddess of love and beauty

Zeus gave the decision on who was the fairest to Prince Paris of Troy in what was called the “Judgement of Paris.”

To persuade Paris’s decision, Hera offered him riches and power, Athena offered him wisdom and success in battle, and Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, who was already married to King Menelaus of Sparta.

Paris chose Aphrodite as the fairest, and so with Aphrodite’s blessing he abducted Helen, which then sparked the Trojan War.

Eris was delighted at the chaos she had wrought.

She created mayhem at a wedding, caused strife among the goddesses, and launched one of the greatest wars in myth and legend.

Now, like Eris, DARPA is tossing its own algorithmic apple of discord into the mix of its adversaries.

What sorts of discord and strife could be unleashed by predicting and manipulating human behavior to achieve outcomes favorable to US national security?

According to the Kallisti program description, “The program will seek not only to understand an actor’s current strategy but also to find a decomposed version of the strategy into relevant basis vectors to track strategy changes under non-stationary assumptions.”

The program looks “to combine algorithms with human expertise to explore, in a modeling and simulation environment, potential courses of action in national security scenarios with far greater breadth and efficiency than is currently possible.”

While the Kallisti-inscribed mythological apple was meant to sow mayhem, DARPA’s Kallisti program seeks to prevent “unwanted escalation,” but are we seeing the makings of another Trojan Horse scenario?

Could the Kallisti algorithms ever be used by law enforcement? How about commercial entities for business purposes?

If successful, how many different applications could be derived from this type of precrime technology?

The original special notice for DARPA’s Theory of Mind program is still live on sam.gov, but it now lists the primary point of contact as being kallisti@darpa.mil.

Image AI-generated by Grok